DA Split 'Will Guarantee ANC Power For Decades', Top Former Strategist Warns

Ryan Coetzee was the brains behind the DA's growth until 2011. And he's not impressed by talk about a new, purely liberal party.

South African opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA) President Mmusi Maimane speaks at a press conference at the party's Federal Congress in Pretoria on April 8, 2018.

If there is a split in the DA and an attempt to establish a purely liberal political party it will simply ensure that the ANC remains in power for the foreseeable future, says the party's former chief strategist Ryan Coetzee.

City Press reported on Sunday that there are plans afoot to create an offshoot of the DA based on the party's liberal principles, which some disgruntled members, including MPs, are being eroded by leader Mmusi Maimane.

He warned in a series of tweets on Sunday that the "centre-ground alternative" to the ANC will be split and that decisive leadership is now necessary to give clear direction to the country's biggest opposition party.

The DA needs to get a grip. (a) Liberalism and redress are not mutually exclusive. (b) A herstigte PP would split the centre ground alternative to the ANC and guarantee it a few more decades in power...

The DA needs to get a grip. (a) Liberalism and redress are not mutually exclusive. (b) A herstigte PP would split the centre ground alternative to the ANC and guarantee it a few more decades in power...

(c) The inside of the party can feel like a whole universe, especially when you're at the centre of a drama, but actually there is a big, wide world out there and much bigger problems in SA than yours. So...

(d) Mmusi must provide clarity and leadership; James and Mmusi and a John must sit down and sort things out between them; the provincial leadership must provide some leadership and bring their people along with them and these "senior MPs" need to stop being silly.

Coetzee was in charge of party strategy and is widely credited with modernising and professionalising the party's operations, assisting the growth of its electoral support between 2004 and 2011. He left the DA allegedly after a disagreement with then-leader Helen Zille and took up a position as adviser to Nick Clegg in 2012, who was deputy prime minister in David Cameron's coalition government.